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Grand jurors brought vehicular homicide charges against Thomas J. Vanderweit, 29, of Saddle Brook and 22-year-old John C. Emili of New City, N.Y.
The 6-foot-7, 325-pound Vanderweit has been free on $100,000 bail since a day after the Sunday morning crash on July 1, 2012.
Emili, a former Clarkstown High School North football player and weight lifter, was released on the same amount three days later.
Witnesses told State Police that the incident began near the Route 17 exit, with both vehicles “making numerous lane changes, tailgating and travelling in excess of the posted speed limit.”
Emili, who was tailgating Vanderweit’s 2007 Chevy Trail Blazer with his 2004 Honda Pilot, tried passing him on the exit lane for 168 and lost control of the vehicle, an NJSP trooper told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
The Pilot careened off the road, hit a guardrail and then hurtled back onto the Parkway, where it overturned and rammed into the side of the Blazer, which left the roadway itself and smashed a guardrail.
Annetta Billingy, 63, of Teaneck, an unrestrained rear passenger in Emili’s Honda, was ejected.
A North Star Medi-Vac helicopter landed at the exit ramp and took her to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
STORY: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter (Vanderweit, Emili MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
CLIFFVIEW PILOT PHOTOS: July 1, 2012
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